By: Annabelle Williams

I'm deputy money editor at City A.M. I started my career on a local newspaper before moving into financial journalism. I've worked in a number of senior editorial roles including news editor and features editor. I write about global economics, investment, technology, and personal finance.

Buy-to-let tax hike: Our guide to the government’s plans to raise stamp duty on second homes – with rules to cover joint owners, landlords, investors and overseas property owners

January 6, 2016

Details of the government’s plan to raise stamp duty on purchases by homeowners with more than one property were released over the festive period. Simply, it will be a 3 per cent surcharge on each stamp duty land tax band when an additional residential property is bought by someone who already owns a home. With the [...]
Commodities swing into 2016: China sends shockwaves through commodity markets as copper falls and oil prices wobble on Middle East tension

January 5, 2016

The new year started with a bang, as China worries wiped value off stock markets around the world, copper prices were squeezed and oil oscillated following an escalation of tensions in the Middle East. The glum start to the year means more uncertainty for commodity markets, already badly battered from last year, when a basket of [...]
Savers: Act now to protect your cash before EU changes to bank deposit protection rules come into force in January

December 22, 2015

Savers should act now to ensure their deposits are protected ahead of new rules coming into force next year. Cash held in bank accounts will only be protected up to £75,000 per person, per account from the 1st January. This is cut from the existing £85,000 protection which has been in place. Deposits held in joint [...]
Women in the boardroom make companies better: Shareholder returns are higher, corruption and fraud rates are lower, and firms are more progressive when females have seats at the top table

December 11, 2015

Women on boards are helping companies to achieve markedly better results, according to a new report. The findings come from index provider MSCI, which found that companies with three or more female directors generated a return on equity 2.7 per cent higher than those without. The reasons why are manifold and no one factor sticks [...]
COP21 Climate Conference: Anti-oil movement picks up steam as fossil fuel divestment goes mainstream and oil prices remain stuck at multi-year lows

December 11, 2015

Fabulously wealthy, from an empire built on the riches of oil, and one of the most powerful families in America, the Rockefellers' $860m (£567m) charitable fund shocked the world when it announced plans to strip the fund of fossil fuel investments. When the world needed an alternative energy source to costly whale oil, John D Rockefeller founded [...]
Brazil: Markets greet news of impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff positively, as the real and stock market both rise

December 3, 2015

Brazil’s markets jumped 3 per cent today as investors greeted news of plans to impeach President Dilma Rousseff with relief. Yesterday, impeachment proceedings were opened by the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, one of the most powerful sitting politicians and now Rousseff’s arch nemesis. Proceedings have been launched on charges that Rousseff broke [...]
Cash is no king: But there are some high interest paying current accounts

November 19, 2015

With the UK’s low-interest rate environment likely to continue well into next year, few would claim that cash is king. But at a time of meagre bond yields and volatility in equity markets, cash is no pretender either. The attractiveness of easy-access accounts has weakened in recent years, with most providers offering less than 1.5 [...]
Fallen hopes: Brazil was a shining star among emerging economies – but Dilma Rousseff and the Petrobras scandal leave it in crisis

November 19, 2015

Once the leading light of Latin America, 2015 has seen Brazil gripped by a corruption scandal of epic proportions, while its economy has slid into the worst crisis for a generation. In the midst of a economic quagmire that has drawn the once-thriving Brazilian powerhouse into a deep recession, the country’s politicians are firefighting on another [...]
Seeking income: Three contrarian ideas for hunters, from Cyprus government bonds to energy companies

November 19, 2015

Times have been tough for investors seeking regular income payments. Nearly all bond sectors have made losses for investors this year. Meanwhile, some of the companies which could once be relied upon for good dividend payments from their shares – such as Tesco and Glencore – have cut or scrapped them entirely. But specialist fund [...]
Buy-to-let is booming with more mortgage deals for landlords than ever but George Osborne’s tax changes will bite

November 19, 2015

Buy to let is booming. Banks’ mortgage lending hit a post-crisis peak of £200bn last year so that “mortgage lending is currently enjoying its best spell since 2008,” says Bob Pannell of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Although mortgage lending figures remain well below their pre-crisis highs of £350bn in 2007, the number of [...]

Subscribe